Jason Holder produced one of the great bowling comebacks to fashion an unexpected last-over victory to level the ODI series against Bangladesh.
The West Indies skipper conceded four runs and picked up a wicket while defending just seven runs off the last six balls. The thrilling win allowed the West Indies to pull level at 1-1 in the three-match series.
The defeat would have been a bitter pill for Bangladesh to swallow following their 48-run win in the first ODI, which had given them strength following their disappointing 2-0 loss in the two-Test series against the West Indies.
Following their emphatic victory in the first ODI, Bangladesh switched things around by choosing to bowl first.
Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis got things off to a steady start and were scoring at around five to the over when Lewis (12 off 18 balls) fell with the score on 29.
Gayle (29 off 38) and Shai Hope (25 of 43) struggled to maintain the run rate, but the innings picked up in the last third as Rovman Powell (44 off 67) provided a stable base for Shimron Hetmyer to attack the flagging Bangladesh bowling line-up, with their fielders losing focus at key moments. The pair added 103 for the fifth wicket.
Hetmyer pushed on, single-handedly keeping the run-rate competitive as his teammates did their best to support him. He blazed away at the Bangladesh bowling to ensure his side had a decent target to defend, hitting six of the West Indies’ seven sixes in the last 10 overs, before being run out in the final over as his team ended on a competitive 271 off 49.3 overs.
Hetmyer’s brilliant 125 off 93 balls (three fours, seven sixes, S/R 134.40) was the 21-year-old’s second ODI century in just 11 innings.
The Bangladesh bowlers were all relatively economical until the flurry of the final few overs, with Rubel Hossain (3-61), Mustafizur Rahman (2-44) and Shakib Al Hasan (2-45) picking up the bulk of the wickets.
Bangladesh kicked off their innings in style, raising their fastest ever ODI fifty off 4.4 overs, with Anamul Haque providing the muscle through two fours and two sixes, before falling in the third over for 23 off just nine balls. Tamim Iqbal (54) and Al Hasan (56) kept the scoreboard rattling along as Bangladesh raced to 79-1 off their opening 10 overs.
The West Indies bowlers rolled up their sleeves for the next 20 overs and were truly magnificent in restricting Bangladesh to just 67 runs from those 120 balls. Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim (68 off 67 balls) then brought Bangladesh back into the match through an 87-run partnership off just 15.5 overs, before Mahmudullah was run out for 39 (51 balls, two sixes) after a dreadful mixup at a key moment with the final five overs beckoning.
Bangladesh kept themselves on course for the win by hitting 10 runs off the 47th over, followed by 13 and then six off the next two overs, before Holder’s last-over heroics snatched a dramatic win for the West Indies. The victory would have tasted all the sweeter for Holder after he was butchered for 62 runs off his first nine overs.
The wickets were spread evenly across the West Indies attack, with Ashley Nurse (1-34, econ 3.40), Gayle (0-26, econ 3.71) and Devendra Bishoo (1-39, econ 3.90) playing the leading roles in containing the Bangladesh batters.
Photo: Randy Brooks/AFP/Getty Images
